chicafrom3: photo of the TARDIS (Princess Bride - inconceivable!)
chicafrom3 ([personal profile] chicafrom3) wrote2010-06-06 04:34 pm
Entry tags:

to err is human, but to really screw things up takes a computer.

Would anyone be able to offer some technical support? :|

I got an error message earlier telling me there was a hardware installation problem and "ActivityMonitor" is not verified by Windows and might screw up my computer. (This came at the same time as a popup notice telling me to restart my computer to complete my AdAware update.)

This set off my alarm buttons for many reasons, not least of which that I was not installing any hardware. Or even using my external drives (SOMETIMES THEY LIKE TO REINSTALL THEMSELVES idk idk, but they weren't plugged in so that issue is moot).

I googled it and found a discussion on AdAware's support forums, which resulted in no clear answers but AdAware insisting it had nothing to do with them and was probably just malware piggybacking the program.

Regardless, I turned off AdAware, installed Malwarebytes, and ran a scan. Which turned up nothing. But I uninstalled AdAware anyway, just to be safe. While uninstalling, the hardware installation error message came up again.

A little more googling led me here. However, checking my task manager showed none of the ActivityMonitor-related processes and a search turned up none of the related .dll files, so, again, idk.

So...should I be taking this as "my AdAware was corrupt but now that I've gotten rid of it no problems!" or should I be trying to find a better anti-spyware program to beat it?

[identity profile] revyrie.livejournal.com 2010-06-06 09:11 pm (UTC)(link)
My dad recommended Avast as a virus scanner to me, and it seems to work well...it's free! Try that!

[identity profile] chicafrom3.livejournal.com 2010-06-06 09:24 pm (UTC)(link)
I've got a virus scan running now, so...we'll see what that turns up! :)